Troy City Council to vote on retiree healthcare benefits next Tuesday

By Andrew Beam

Friday, November 16, 2012

TROY -- After a week full of confusion over the fate of the new healthcare benefits package for the City's retirees, the City Council tabled the measure until Tuesday during a Special Meeting on Thursday.

At the request of Mayor Lou Rosamilia, the council tabled its vote on the package for the city's 260 retirees so the new changes could be articulated to the eligible members as well as making sure the process followed rules laid out by the city's charter. Rosamilia said there were some modifications made to the resolution to make sure the eligibility requirement was clear.

"In ongoing discussions with providers, we decided to make some minor adjustments," Rosamilia said. "I don't believe it will affect the outcome of the vote."

The council had gone into executive session to discuss the matter during the special meeting after Councilman Mark McGrath, R-District 2, demanded to hear what the new changes would be before the council voted. He also said voting on the resolution would violate the charter as the changes were not reflected on the agenda and the council had not received what changes it would be voting on until the meeting.

One of the main changes made were to the prescription drug co-pays, Rosamilia said. The original plan called for a co-pay of $1 for brand medication and $3 for generic for retirees from the Police and Fire Departments and was originaly proposed to change to $1 for brand and $1 for generic when purchasing 30-day scripts. CSEA and other non-exempt retirees were paying $5 for brand and $10 for generic and the first proposal kept it the same.

Rosamilia said with the newly proposed co-pays, both will pay $1 for brand and $1 for generic for eligible members.

For mail order 90-day scripts, Rosamilia said the original plan was $0 for all eligible retirees. The first proposal raised it to $3 for brand and $3 for generic for retirees of Fire and Police Department while CSEA and other non-exempt members were raised to $10 for brand and $20 generic. This was reduced so all eligible retirees will pay $3 for band and $3 for generic.

For each script, eligible retirees will be paying $12 for the entire year.

The city had projected to realize approximately $840,000 in annual savings under the plan, but Rosamilia admitted the changes in co-pay would cost the City $24,000. But, Rosamilia said the administration did its due diligence and found the savings after performing an audit and removing people on the plan who were not eligible.

"As a result of the administration doing its due diligence, we did an eligibility audit for who is eligible, and based on the audit, we'll be able to cover the $24,000 easily," Rosamilia said. "The city will save enough money to offset the cost because of the audit."

The Special meeting will take place at 6:30 p.m., just before the vote on the final budget at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.